On March 14, at town council in Peace River, the Town of Peace River and Northern Sunrise County, through their Capital Cost Sharing Agreement, awarded the skatepark committee $90,000.

Last year, the two municipalities contributed $100,000 through the agreement to the committee.

In a letter to Peace River Town Council, Peace River MLA Debbie Jabbour expressed her support for the skatepark.

“In a small community like Peace River, recreational activities are limited. The Curtis Marshall Memorial Skatepark is an excellent project that will provide a safe and well-designed place for youth in the community, and will attract youth and families from around the town and the entire region,” stated Jabbour.

“The new park will provide an opportunity for free, healthy exercise; development of physical skills; and a social meeting place for young people who are often separated by distance and a lack of shared activities.”

“Completion of the park will also allow the community to heal and grow after the loss of Curtis Marshall, a kind, bright young man who passed too soon and before his dream of bringing a true skatepark to Peace River could be realized. In this small community his loss is still keenly felt. Coming together to build this park has given his friends and family something positive to look forward to, and seeing it realized will help the community with the healing process.”

Kris Scobey, president of the skatepark committee, said the money is important to proceed with the first physical construction step at the site.

“...it really shows the commitment of Northern Sunrise County and the Town of Peace River into this project, so it’s really nice. It’s a huge validation for us and for the project as a whole,” said Scobey.

“That $90,000 is going to go towards the remediation of the site. Basically, when we got our geo-technical survey done on the area, we just found that underneath it is a lot of river bed soil, like a lot of sticks and bio material. It’s all good, clean soil, but unfortunately it’s not something you can build a skatepark on, especially if you want it to last.”

“We’re going to end up taking about 950 square metres of soil and we’re going to have to remove that soil and luckily it seems to be fairly good soil, so we shouldn’t have an issue getting it disposed of.”

Once the ground is thawed, Scobey said the 950 square metres of soil will be removed and then geofill will be brought in.

“...then we’ve got a good base to build the park on, so we don’t have to worry about damage to the park over time due to the weather we have up here,” he said.

Until the ground is thawed, hopefully by June, noted Scobey, the committee is planning several events between now and then.

In April, the committee is setting up a silent auction item with KIX-FM.

“I know it’s been a long, long, long time for people without seeing a lot of things happening for the park, other than funding and stuff like that, so it’ll be nice to move forward with some actual physical movements for the park,” added Scobey.